It’s been almost a month since my last update. As you can imagine, it’s been an intense time between closing up the old studio (*sob*) and setting up the new one (yay!). Above and below are first looks at my new space. Above is my writing corner adorned by my Queen of Arrows painting from The Lover’s Path Tarot and a beautiful print of the Lady of Shalott (given to me by my friend Lunaea Weatherstone). Below is my new chalkboard wall which replaces the chalkboard wall of my previous studio. The peacock feathers are for inspiration.

Best of all, I have a studio view for the first time in over a decade. I can see several blocks all around. Cats in backyards, people walking, trees galore, squirrels and birds. Northern exposure, so no harsh sunlight on computer screens. It’s going to feel like a tree house of green once spring arrives.

It’s been a lot of work closing out the old for the new. (You may recall that besides moving my studio I also moved my home. Changes upon changes upon changes.) On top of all this, I’ve had some personal stuff going on that necessitated my attention and an unexpected trip to the West Coast. These interruptions are simply the realities of life when one has an elderly mother and a young daughter. All of this has pushed me behind on my January 31st deadline for THE LILY MAID, my novel-in-progress set in Victorian England. But what can one do except “make it work” (to quote St. Tim of Project Runway fame)?

However, a break awaits: I’m off to England for two weeks for a writer’s retreat. During this time, I plan to tie up the remaining plot threads for THE LILY MAID as well as finish researching the last details. For example, an entire section of my novel is set in the Cotswolds, a part of England where I’ve hardly spent any time. I’m also planning to revisit the Tate Gallery for a dose of inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelites and their cohort.Waterhouse’s Lady of Shalott painting is back on display there.

As for my intentions for the book, It would be lovely to come back with a ready-to-send-to-agent manuscript, but I’ll setting for the rest of the book being drafted after all these interruptions. Right now, I have about 95,000 words revised and polished to a high sheen. But I fear that the remaining 20K will be the hardest; they’re going to require the most amount of revising and reworking.

So here’s to the muses cooperating and nearly-completed manuscripts!

Magick for Terri is a fundraising auction to help much loved editor, artist and writer Terri Windling. She’s helped so many in the publishing community (including myself); now she need our help because of various health and legal issues.

If you don’t know who Terri Windling is, you’ve probably come across many of her creative works and just didn’t realize her involvement. Terri is the creator of groundbreaking fantasy and mythic art and literature over the past several decades, ranging from the influential urban fantasy series Bordertown to the online Journal of Mythic Arts. With co-editor Ellen Datlow, she changed the face of contemporary short fiction with The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and other award-winning anthologies, including Silver Birch, Blood Moon, and The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest. Her remarkable Endicott Studio blog continues to bring music, poetry, art and inspiration to people all over the world.

As for myself, Terri was a huge help to me when I was a new illustrator fresh out of art school. She introduced me to my first literary agent and authors, encouraged me at a time when I really and truly needed it. I’ve never forgotten her kindness to me. She was there at a time when I truly needed someone to be.

On a “I must shop for the holidays season” front, there are some amazing offerings: an Alan Lee drawing, writing critiques from authors such as Theodora Goss and Delia Sherman, Neil Gaiman autographed items, prints, books, jewelry, and so much more. So Magick for Terri is a great way to get something special for your someone special and do good too.

I’ve become involved myself: I’ve donated an autographed Gwenhywfar giclée print (above) to help Terri out. But there’s only one day left to bid on it—the auction ends tomorrow, December 15th, for all items. So if you’re interested, go forth and bid. If bidding goes over $90, I’ll throw in other goodies to go with it.

While others are stuffing themselves with pumpkin pie here in the States, I’m off for a week-long writer’s retreat. My destination this time: Washington DC. My goal: to untangle the final third of THE LILY MAID for public consumption.

As you can read in my last blog post, it’s no secret that the past month of my life has been devoted to all things domestic. So I’m eager to reacquaint myself with the twists and turns of my novel. Most importantly, I want to finish roughing out for revision what remains of the book—I have just over two months before my agent is expecting to see the next draft . I know how everything ends (and, trust me, it’s a great ending), but I’m still fuzzy on how I’ll get there from everything I’ve so carefully set up with my first 80,000 words.

As I’ve learned too well while writing THE LILY MAID, writing fiction is a much more mysterious process than writing nonfiction. The above pictures give you a sense of the scope of what I’m dealing with: the notes, the research, the just plain muddling through-it-ness of it all. I know it’s a cliche, but characters really do take on a life of their own, determining plot, theme, and story arc. Often the only way to figure it all out is to go someplace quiet enough to listen to them.

So I’m listening. And I’m writing.

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Upon my return to Brooklyn next week, another major transition awaits me: Setting up my new work studio. Though it’s only four blocks away from my current Brooklyn studio location, the new Art and Words will be situated on the top floor of my new home—a more private location for musing and making art. Fortunately, I have a month of overlap because I have my current storefront-studio until the end of the year. But I’m not deluding myself—it’s still going to be a major amount of work.

(Yes, all this on top of finishing a novel and setting up a new household as well as being a mom to the most adorable six-year-old ever and other Life Stuff.)

Despite everything going on, we’ll be having a last public salon before I close the storefront on Sunday, December 18th. If you’ve never visited the studio, this is your last chance to do so before I move to my new space. I hope to see you there!

]]> http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/11/creativity-friday-a-retreat-to-write/feed/ 0 http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/11/moving-on/ http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/11/moving-on/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:47:59 +0000 kriswaldherr http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/?p=1829 One of my favorite sayings is that you can do everything you want, but just not at the same time. This past month has especially brought this point home to me—and I mean “home” in the literal sense.

Saying goodbye to our old apartment.

The moving van almost about loaded to go to our new home.

Beautiful tree greeting us at new home.

Inside the new home, post-move.

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And so, what’s next? Well, I’d like to write that I’ll be catching my breath, unpacking, and decorating to my heart’s content. But that will have to wait until after THE LILY MAID novel deadline in January. To be honest, this move felt a bit like being thrown out of the delivery room mid-labor. There I was, chugging along with my revisions and then everything came to an crashing halt (albeit for a very welcome and wonderful reason). Still, the muses don’t like being thwarted, so the nesting will have wait a bit.

To help get things moving again, I’ll be off on writer’s retreat for a week. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to catch up enough to feel less panicked about the state of my novel! Right now, I have about 85,000 words revised, with the final 35,000 to go. Here’s hoping I’ll build up enough momentum that it’ll be easy to tie up all those character arcs and plot threads. Just in case, I have a second retreat planned in January. This one is for two weeks in England near where my novel’s ending takes place. (Never underestimate the power of place to spur inspiration!)

]]> http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/11/moving-on/feed/ 4 http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/10/publishing-monday-gaian-tarot-giveaway-winner%e2%80%94and-a-talk-from-jennifer-egan/ http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/10/publishing-monday-gaian-tarot-giveaway-winner%e2%80%94and-a-talk-from-jennifer-egan/#comments Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:28:21 +0000 kriswaldherr http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/?p=1779

First off, congratulations to Sally! You’ve won a copy of Joanna Powell Colbert’s luminous Gaian Tarot. Sally wrote:

What a beautiful deck. It’s great to read about the creative process behind it.”

I heartily agree. I loved the Gaian Tarot’s compassionate and expansive view of humanity—how embracing it is of all cultures and experiences. The art is truly lovely too. I especially thought the accompanying guide book was wonderfully written and very well organized. I’m finding Joanna’s tarot philosophy to be similar to mine, especially in regards to viewing the numbered minors as organic developments of a suit’s energy.

Sally, an e-mail has been sent to you with information for claiming your prize. And many thanks to Joanna for sharing her wisdom and creativity with us on my blog! As I mentioned in my interview with Joanna last week, the Gaian Tarot is now available as a trade publication from Llewellyn Worldwide as well as in a limited edition format. To learn more and try an online reading, visit the Gaian Tarot website.

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In other news, I was fortunate to attend the 11th annual National Book Festival last week. The National Book Festival is organized and hosted by the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. With over one hundred stellar authors participating, it’s a veritable harvest of publishing goodness. I was fortunate not only to attend the very glamorous opening reception (which was held in the stunning Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson building), but to also hear some of my favorite authors speak about their books: Dave Eggers, Toni Morrison, Sarah Vowell, Gregory Maguire, and others.

Recent Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan (A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD) was especially inspiring on the subject of writing fiction, a subject very dear to my heart—her words really resonated with me. Here’s a few of the many things she shared during her nearly hour-long talk. Bear in mind these are a bit paraphrased from my hastily scribbled notes:

On her reasons for writing: “Everyone advises you should ‘write what you know.’ Why do that? I write to escape to another dimension.”

On plotting a novel: “My subconscious is way smarter than I am. Writing is how I access the unconscious part of myself. I trust it to reveal the story.”

On writing A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD: “To tell this story, I had to use different narrative structures. I’ll do whatever it takes to tell a story.”

On a related note, here are the three rules she ultimately decided upon to structure GOON SQUAD:

1. Each chapter had to be about a separate character.

2. Each chapter had to have a different setting.

3. Each chapter had to stand alone as a story.

On the wisdom of story: “The story itself leads you to the place you need to go.”

On fiction: “The job of fiction is to raise questions.”

After hearing Ms. Egan speak, I was inspired to deviate from my LILY MAID-related “all-Victorian-all-the-time” reading list to read A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD. It’s really wonderful—a true tour de force of narrative structure and extremely memorable characters. It swerves dazzlingly in time from the San Francisco punk rock scene of the early 1980s into the present; and finally into a future New York City strangled by social media and global warming. While some have derided the chapter composed in PowerPoint as a gimmick, I thought it worked well.

I know there has been discussion whether GOON SQUAD is a novel or a clever collection of interlocked short stories. To my mind, it’s both. While each story stands on its own (as Egan intended), there’s a sense of elegiac loss permeating the book that ties everything together novelistically. Ultimately, GOOD SQUAD is a bittersweet Proustian meditation on the ravages of time. Highly recommended.

One little-known fact about me: I am a book query goddess. (And modest too. ) I’ve helped several authors rock their queries and opening pages to get that all-important agent interest. So if you’ve ever wanted help with your’s, you’re in luck: I’m happy to announce I’ve donated a first chapter and query critique of a literary or historical novel to Read for Relief.

What is Read for Relief? It’s a writing community to aid victims of Hurricane Irene. Besides myself, there are numerous goodies on offer—everything from book packages to full manuscript reads and beyond. Living here in Brooklyn, we were very lucky that Irene only sideswiped us. But many were not so fortunate. So I hope you’ll go forth and bid!

In other news, to commemorate the release of the Goddess Tarot Android app, a contest to win a free Goddess Tarot app and THE BOOK OF GODDESSES e-book is taking place here. To enter, head over to Deb’s blog to learn more. Please feel free to share—and have a great weekend!

1. Saturday, September 17, 2-4 pm: FENG SHUI YOUR LIFE WORKSHOP
With author Tisha Morris

Last chance to register at discounted rate! Bring balance to your mind, body, and home! Please join us for a special hands-on workshop with Tisha Morris, author of the new book FENG SHUI YOUR LIFE. She’ll be visiting the gallery all the way from Nashville to teach us how to put the “om” back into home with simple and practical feng shui techniques:

-Discover feng shui techniques that can quickly transform the energy in your home without spending a dime.
-Identify how areas in your home correlate with areas in your life.
-Discover energy portals in your home that you can use to bring about change in your life.
-Leave with a specific Action List to transform at least one room or area of your home.

Autographed books will be available for purchase. Please bring a notebook and writing materials. Registration required.

early registration discount:
$25 before September 9; $30 afterward

2. Saturday, September 17, 1-6 pm: MADE IN BROOKLYN ART RETROSPECTIVE – ARTIST RECEPTION
With artist Zane Treimanis

My friend and neighbor Zane Treimanis‘ art is created primarily with wood, assembling pieces that have been chopped, sawn, nailed and glued. After acquiring a band saw and other tools, Zane began to cut her own shapes and started to develop a personal vocabulary of abstract contours suggested by the human form, as well as forms in nature. “Made in Brooklyn” weaves together several decades of Treimanis’ work. Her most recent work explores the “bare bones” of wood, taking advantage of its natural color and texture.

This exhibit takes place at the BWAC Gallery located at 499 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231. The artist will be at the exhibit every weekend 1-6 PM to greet you and offer a personal tour. Can’t make the opening reception? The exhibit is up September 17 through October 16, 2011. Gallery is open weekends 1-6 PM.

For more information, visit Zane’s website at ZaneTreimanis.com.

3. Saturday, September 17, 6-9 pm: FLATBUSH ARTIST STUDIO TOUR AT WHISK
Opening reception and grand opening

The Flatbush Artists Studio Tour, or FAST, will have an opening reception for a collective exhibit at the Whisk Bakery Cafe located at 1119 Newkirk Avenue on the corner of Westminster Road.  The FAST exhibit will be on view through October 11. This reception will coincide with the Whisk Bakery Cafe’s Grand Opening scheduled for that weekend.  FAST is a group of local artists interested in showcasing the work of Visual Artists living and working in the Victorian Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. It should be a fun time!

]]> http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/09/live-in-nyc-what-are-you-doing-september-17th/feed/ 0 http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/08/publishing-monday-congrats-all-around/ http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/08/publishing-monday-congrats-all-around/#comments Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:20:41 +0000 kriswaldherr http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/?p=1719 A quick round up of recent publications by three of my favorite colleagues:

1. My cousin Vicky Alvear Shecter’s book CLEOPATRA’S MOON was just published by Arthur Levine Books. CLEOPATRA’S MOON is a young adult historical fiction novel about the only surviving child of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony. Based on real events and individuals in history, it tells the story of a young woman determined to carve her own future after the tragic loss of everything she’s ever known and everyone she’s ever loved. It’s garnering some much-deserved rave reviews:

“This novel has romance, drama, heartbreak, and adventure…Shecter writes about the world of ancient Egypt and Rome with wonderful detail, making it come alive…A fantastic read with some valuable history.” — School Library Journal

“Fascinating historical novel…Cleopatra Selene proves a stalwart heroine, and the novel’s atmospheric setting and romantic intrigue are highly memorable.”—
Publishers Weekly

“The historical context and characters are well drawn…makes for intriguing storytelling…a romantic and exciting story.” —
Kirkus

2. The trade edition of Joanna Powell Colbert’s long-awaited Gaian Tarot is finally available from Llewellyn Worldwide. Joanna created the Gaian Tarot to speak directly to the hearts of those who practice an earth-centered spirituality. Though the deck has been available as a collector’s limited edition, I’m pleased that the Gaian will now be available to the world at large. I know how many years Joanna has worked on this project—a real labor of love.

3. Finally, Susanne Dunlap, author of IN THE SHADOW OF THE LAMP, THE MUSICIAN’S DAUGHTER and other wonderful historical fiction novels, has branched into iPhone development with several colleagues. Their WordWit app from Ballpoint, Inc. pairs misused words with their evil twins, explains them clearly, and provides entertaining examples from literature and the media. It’s also beautifully designed. A delicious mixture of reference app and game app, WordWit will get people interacting with words in a whole new way. I was fortunate to try the app in beta format—fun and totally addictive. Download WordWit from the App Store.

Congratulations to everyone! But wait, there’s more: In September, I’ll be interviewing Vicky and Joanna about their newest publications. I’m really looking forward to learning more about their creative processes. Plus there will be giveaways of CLEOPATRA’S MOON and the GAIAN TAROT courtesy of Scholastic Books and Llewellyn Worldwide.

As you can see in the above photograph, the Wall of Projects has been quite full this season. That’s the only excuse I can give for allowing this blog to go dormant for a full month. I don’t think I’ve gone this long between updates since, well, I don’t know when. My semi-lame excuse: I’ve been overwhelmed with trying to finalize several major projects before going on summer break.

Did I accomplish everything I wanted to? No. But I got quite close.** A quick recap to bring you up to speed on some of what’s going on in my studio:

1. THE LILY MAID. Goal: To finish revising and workshopping Part 1 and Part 2 (about 75k words) of my novel. Accomplished: Revised all but one chapter of Part 1; Part 2 semi-revised. Once I finish this, I’ve just the last third to edit. On the plus side, I’m very pleased with the feedback I’ve gotten so far on my revised chapters. My readers have been so supportive that I’m feeling so much more confident about my writing these days. And I’ve gained several astonishingly good critique partners and beta readers through the HNS conference and my novel-writing workshop at Sackett Street Writers.

Here’s a post-revision excerpt from the first page of THE LILY MAID, which I’m quite happy with:

A painting undermined my father. And, as you will see by the end of my story, a painting nearly destroyed me. Art is dangerous like that, an unruly thing. I used to consider it as superfluous as those who dedicated their lives to creating it. But I no longer do—I’ve learned this lesson, along with so many others, over the past months. During this period my life has become as foreign to me as another land.

When a life is about to be turned upside-down, there should be some sort of sign so you can prepare yourself. In my case, I received it about a year ago as a communication from beyond the grave. The message was so obvious that I ignored it. I couldn’t believe that fate would be so inelegant.

It was on the first anniversary of my father’s unexpected death in the July of 1888 that my maternal great-aunt Georgiana decided to contact him in a séance. The truth was that my father, while a respected scholar, was not the most practical of men. While Aunt Georgiana was better off than we were thanks to an advantageous marriage, she was reluctant to financially help us from a fear of making us dependent. Instead she claimed my father’s spirit would guide us to some undisclosed funds. His family had been wealthy in Italy, but less so once they’d fled to England for political reasons. Having little experience with the frisson of the darkened room, Aunt Georgiana decided that the Bloomsbury Proper-gandists of Spiritualism would be the vehicle for my family’s liberation. She knew nothing about this group beyond the claims of their London Times advertisement—Novel and Marvelous Manifestations in Full Light. Daily at 3 and 8. The address listed was near the Strand just off Fleet Street.”

2. GODDESS TAROT ANDROID APP. Goal: On the market by the end of July. Accomplished: Almost finished—one last round of revisions and it should be ready for submission to Android Market. The good news is that the app has been designed to work on Android phones and tablets. It’s exactly the same as the Goddess Tarot iPhone app with a few very minor modifications for the Android platform. (On a related note, I’m hoping to put the Goddess Tarot iPad app into production this fall.)

3. SACRED WORLD ORACLE. Goal: Finished and to the published. Accomplished: Three cards left; the booklet text underway. This project is definitely a case of “so very close”—I’ve been trying to finalize it since the end of 2010. Sometimes my time in the studio seems like a giant game of Whack a Mole.

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On top of all this, my website needs a major overhaul, I’ve several design jobs underway—I’m helping the lovely and amazing Sandra Gulland launch her new e-book imprint!—and the new gallery show needs to be hung. I’ve decided this time ’round to present a selection of my books and art—something I haven’t done in some time.

We’re also moving forward with scheduling new events for this fall. Our first event will be a feng shui workshop with author Tisha Morris on September 17th. Spaces are limited; registration is required. Learn more here.

And how was your summer so far? Feel free to post about it in the comment section. In the meantime, I’ll be catching my breath before diving in again.

*So much for my HNS recap “coming soon.” Sigh.

** In tarot, the Nine of Staves traditionally represents a brief break for rest before jumping back into the fray. Completion is so close, yet feels so far!

Yup, that kind of weekend.

I have a long post brewing about the HNS conference for my next Publishing Monday feature. There was a lot to take in that I’m still processing. The sessions were thought-provoking and entertaining. Unlike most of the authors there, I wasn’t pitching or promoting a book (though I did participate in the group book signing for DOOMED QUEENS). My main goal was to build community so I’d feel less isolated as I continue with my Victorian-set novel, THE LILY MAID.

On that note, I was extremely fortunate to have the opening pages of THE LILY MAID critiqued by the esteemed and established authors Laurel Corona (THE FOUR SEASONS, FINDING EMILIE), Christy English (TO BE QUEEN), and Michelle Cameron (THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS). All three were extremely encouraging and helpful. They also surprised me by telling me how literary my writing was. Strange as it may sound, in some ways I’m so new to this fiction writing thing that I have no idea where my novel fits. Is it upmarket commercial? Women’s fiction? Historical fiction? Or some combination of genres? I’ve been describing THE LILY MAID as GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING meets the early tightly-plotted novels of Sarah Waters with a soupçon of JANE EYRE. (If you can figure what genre this is, let me know.)

Frankly, I’m usually a loner when it comes to groups and organizations. What creatively-inclined introvert isn’t? However, by the time I left San Diego, I felt very much part of a vital, passionate publishing community. I can’t even begin to name all of the wonderful people I met who inspired me with their love of the historical fiction genre who I now consider friends. I’m also much clearer about the place my novel will have within the market and as literature. This alone seems a graduation as tangible in some ways as Thea’s little Pomp and Circumstance march in her classroom.

And now, I’m back at work. As usual, there are a gazillion projects underway as well as the usual household and childcare responsibilities. Foremost on my project list: finalizing the graphics for the Goddess Tarot android app and finishing up the Sacred World Oracle for U. S. Games Systems. On top of that, I’m workshopping fifty pages of THE LILY MAID at the Sackett Street Writers Workshop—a wonderful experience. The six other writers in my group are all so talented and insightful. Sackett Street specializes in small intensives with gifted writers, many who have MFAs or go on to get MFAs. (I was astonished my application was accepted since I don’t consider myself a dyed-in-the-wool literary writer. But after my critiques at HNS and at Backspace, I’m definitely rethinking this.) My first two chapters were workshopped last week, another graduation of sorts.

On a semi-related note, we’ve moved onto summer hours at the gallery through September. This is to allow me time to focus on my publishing deadlines. For more information, visit our events page.